WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Green Party has endorsed a march organized by the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) in Philadaphia on July 25, the opening day of the Democratic National Convention ( https://march4ourlives2016.org ).

Cheri Honkala, leader and co-founder of PPEHRC, was the Green Party’s vice-presidential candidate in 2012, running with nominee Jill Stein. Ms. Honkala, a long-time activist, used her campaign to give the poor, homeless, and jobless a voice during the election year.

According to a statement from PPEHRC organizers, “The City of Philadelphia will spend upwards of $60 million to house millionaires and billionaires but yet continues to fail in providing for its most vulnerable citizens. The denied demonstration intends to shed light on the city’s unemployment and homelessness issues and demand accessible housing and living wages in Philadelphia.” (Contact for the march: Cheri Honkala, 215-869-4753, cherihonkalappehrc@gmail.com)

“Greens support the march because it represents the demand for a better world. We believe that a better world is possible, but not as long as the two corporate-cash parties maintain exclusive power. It’s time to end the war on poor people and begin the war on poverty,” said Chris Robinson, membership secretary of the Green Party of Philadelphia, which has also endorsed the march.

Green Party members have participated in protests at Democratic and Republican conventions in previous presidential election years and will do so again in 2016.

“We’ve seen a sustained bipartisan assault on economic rights and security for working people and the poor during the last generation. Led by Bill Clinton in the early 1990s, the Democratic Party made a decision to discard its New Deal and Great Society tradition and focus instead on winning support from the One Percent. Democrats bought into the doctrine of privatization, globalization, deregulation, and service to the corporate sector,” said Sanda Everette, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States and member of the Coordinating Committee of the Green Party of California.

“In Philadelphia and all over the U.S., we’re seeing the results of that decision — jobs disappearing across the border, sinking wages, foreclosures, slashed services, families breaking up because of financial stress. The Philadelphia convention is the perfect occasion to confront Democrats — and Hillary Clinton in particular — over their responsibility for this state of affairs,” said Ms. Everette.

Green candidates have promoted a “Green New Deal” to create millions of new jobs, stimulate the economy, and provide sorely needed public services by investing in efforts to stop the advance of global warming through new energy technologies, conservation, expansion of public transportation, retrofitting homes and buildings, and other public-works projects (http://gpus.org/organizing-tools/the-green-new-deal).

“Democrats and Republicans are very generous with public assistance — when it’s received by Wall Street, military contractors, Big Oil, and other business elites. They pretend that public services and resources for working people and the needy place a strain on the budget, while spending trillions for endless war. The Green Party has a more humane vision for the country’s future — an economy that serves people instead of corporations,” said Matt Funiciello, Green candidate for U.S. Congress in New York’s 21st Congressional District (http://mattfunicielloforcongress.org).